CANADIAN GOVERNMENT ABETS HEROIN ADDICTION

Re: "Poppy crop puts Canadian troops at risk," Aug. 3.

Don Martin's column got me thinking: Who are the people dependent upon
heroin?

Answer: People who need rehab and who are usually poor and/or homeless.
Perfect targets,
whose addictions are taken advantage of by criminals like the Taliban.

The "drug problem" isn't the only thing "shrugged off" by Defence
Minister Peter MacKay's department and the Canadian government.

Heroin addicts desperately need government to comprehensively address
their needs for adequate income and rehabilitation services. But the
government has to have a will to do that and spend the necessary funds.

When it's all stripped down, the Canadian government actually appears
complicit in the Taliban's drug production because it does not more
adequately address poverty and drug addiction.

For now, it's business as usual for everyone.

Sadly, our brave soldiers pay the price.

Liz Stonard

Port Alberni